HUGE - Théâtre des Champs-Elysées - 2019
Commissioned by Deutsche Grammophon
It's enormous ! Adjective which translates a popular expression to designate "wow, it was an act of courage".
And HUGE is an hymn to courage.
I belong to the midst of composers of so-called "contemporary" or "art" music. I compose music which brings together on stage classical performers (violinists, oboists, quartet, orchestra, lyric singers, etc.) who read and study music on paper, but who interact with computers during stage performances. HUGE is one of them. Art music finds its filiation in links with the great repertoire, revisited by expressive possibilities today.
But, very often, when playing a composition of contemporary music, there is a real discrepancy between the virtuosity required for the performer, its real difficulty in terms of instrumental playing and the restitution to the public. A virtuosity which, too often, remains restrained, fearful, concealed or camouflaged behind dated and academic concepts, therefore sterile.
When it comes to playing music today, the audience is often listless and, because of this discrepancy, the great performers of the great repertoire avoid playing it. Contemporary music that, for too long, has lost a lot of courage.
But art music (the term with which contemporary music proclaims itself), in its foundations, should dare, launch out and risk. HUGE is in this direction. HUGE is a monument to courage. It could be renamed overkill: a composition full of audacity, cheekiness ... courage.
I wanted to write this composition for piano and live computer for years. But I couldn't do it ...
The reason was dictated by the fact that I had never met Simon Ghraichy. We needed an extraordinary pianist. Out of class. A pianist who masters all techniques of the piano, in an extremely virtuoso manner, and who accepts to expand his repertoire to creation.
HUGE is the fruit of this meeting. I designed HUGE for Simon Ghraichy thanks to Simon Ghraichy. Because it was not only necessary to write a composition with "notes", but above all it was necessary to design the device which accompanies it. New modes of play, while leaving possible classical piano idioms. So I designed a particular pair of gloves, because I asked Simon to play with the palms of his hands on the piano strings with the greatest power; to play in the piano, on the strings as well as on the wooden cover and parts of the metal frame with six of his ten fingers. By leaving him four "free" fingers, Simon can also play "normally" on the keyboard. All of this extremely fast, so virtuoso.
HUGE is based on the preexisting experiences of Simon Ghraichy who masters an exceptional virtuosity in the game of double octaves, the "ribattuto" and his maturity capable of handling the musical phrasing in an extraordinary way. Simon Ghraichy has the courage to put on (during stage play) these special gloves in order to create a dialogue between the interior of the piano and the keyboard. Thanks to an amplification system and real-time sound processing, HUGE reveals both the "typical" sounds of the piano as well as a palette of unusual playing modes all in the service of expressiveness.
HUGE is a tribute to Simon Ghraichy, to his virtuosity, his musicality, his personality, but, above all, to his passion.
